Mainland Settlements

 


Mainland Settlements 





Sizeable and solid structures in Neolithic Orkney are the cairns, the Knap of Howar, and the complex later structures of Skara Brae and the Ness of Brodgar. In contrast to these are the earlier settlements  which all seem to be shallow and fragile.

The Knowes of Trotty is a settlement on the Bay of Firth, Orkney Mainland. The excavated house is part of a group of eleven mounds, situated at the foot of the steep west slopes of the Ward of Redland. It features a large rectangular hearth, and a small external paved annexe with work areas including an area for pottery manufacture. All 7 carbon samples at this site are likely to pre-date 3000BC  (Nick Card, Jane Downes and Paul Sharman, 2006.) 

Excavation at seven other habitation sites delivered samples that are dated to before 3000BC. They are the Stonehall group, Stonehall Knoll, Stonehall Meadow, and Stonehall Farm, on the Bay of Firth, and not far from them, Wideford Hill and Smerquoy. This group may have been settled in this location because of its position on the lea side of hills around the Bay of Firth. It is relatively sheltered here, and at present trees are more numerous, and growing to greater heights than in other more exposed locations. 

Stonehall Meadow and Wideford Hill are both likely to pre-date 3000BC. Most of the samples from Stonehall farm are likely to pre-date 3000BC, but one is from the 28th century BC settlement

Smerquoy was established and abandoned before 3000BC, but may have been re-occupied at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, a thousand years later. 

The same thing happens at Habreck which is on the island of Wyre, abandonment before 3000BC, and reoccupation a thousand years later. The re-occupation of these sites would not have been as a result of people retuning to structures. It is likely that the abandoned settlements would have developed soils that encouraged the sowing of seeds, and the growth of wild food crops. 

On the island of Eday is Green, which  was occupied and abandoned before 3000BC. 

Stonehall Knoll stands out as an anomaly, as it has three samples from a thin layer of burnt material, with dates from three different centuries : the 32nd, 30th, and 26th. All three of these samples from the one layer may have been redeposited and trampled into the ground at any time after the 26th century BC. 

None of the foregoing habitation sites have any of the structural integrity of buildings that would permit their inhabitants to survive an Orkney winter. (The "Orkney Winter" is like a character in a melodramatic play. It has it's own character, and it's own temperament that overcasts ordinary mortal life on the archipelago. Survival through winter can be uncomfortable now, and must have been challenging 5000 years ago.).


Indigenous American Teepee 


*

This is one of a loosely attached group of blogs called the "Orkney Riddle".

The key blog to the group is called the "Neolithic Immigrants to Britain" 

All views and opinions expressed are my own, but it remains a work-in-progress for which positive criticism and comment is welcomed.


Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

Jiffynorm@yahoo.co.uk 


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